Okay, I'm stealing a blog technique from Neil. Whenever he gets several emails with basically the same question, he answers it in his blog, so I'm going to do that here. Many want to know if they can get a great gray owl carcass mounted or a permanently injured owl for educational purposes.

First, in order to have either, you have to have state and federal permits for education--even to get a mounted dead owl. You can't just have a mounted great gray sitting on top of the tv, there's no way US Fish and Wildlife will give a permit for that. The hundreds of owl carcasses are being sent to various research facilities and you can check this article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune to read more about that and I would contact Bob in the article to find out how you can get a mounted owl.

Second, The Raptor Center has some injured great grays but the chances of any of them qualifying as an education bird are slim to nil at this point. Apparently the great gray doesn't have the temperment suited for a bird to do public programs. I asked our assistant bird curator at The Raptor Center if we would get an education great gray and she said she felt lucky if we would be able to get a mounted owl.